grammar

your and you're

I decided to start this book off with the number one most common mistake I see: the use of 'your' and 'you're'. Ironically, it's also a simple lesson. 

Here's an example of this error:

Sophie burst into the classroom, red-faced and panting.

Mrs. Auctor shot her a stern look. "Your late."

Can you hear that? I just rolled my eyes into another dimension. This is a major trigger point for me, mainly because all it would take is a punctuation mark, an 'r' and an 'e' to fix it.

Here, have the definitions according to Google Dictionary, because I need to go find my eyes.

YOUR -

1.
belonging to or associated with the person or people that the speaker is addressing.

2.
belonging to or associated with any person in general.

3.
used when addressing the holder of certain titles.

YOU'RE - a contraction of you are.

Note that contraction means two words basically mashed together: like 'you are' into 'you're'.

I'll give you the simplified, dummy-version. 'Your' means belonging to you. For example, you could say, "I like your shirt," (though you won't because most of us on here lack social skills). 'You're' means 'you are'. For example, you could say, "Molly, you're stupid and mean, so I'm going to slaughter you in my next fanfiction!"

The trick to determining which word to use is what I like to call the "Un-contraction method." Since 'you're' is a contraction of 'you are', you can replace it with 'you are'. Then, see if 'you are' sounds right in the sentence. If it does, change the 'you are' in the sentence back into 'you're' and you're done (haha, see what I did there?). If the 'you are' doesn't work in the sentence, you can go ahead and write 'your'.

Until the next chapter, stay fresh, cheese bags.